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Final word: Strawberry yields forever

Sir Paul McCartney's exhorations to refrain from eating meat on Monday will sound familiar to Irish catholics. Once upon a time we eschewed meat on Fridays. Then it was to save our souls. Now McCartney has taken an old idea and made it better. He's asking us to forsake our steaks for the planet. If the former Beatle can convince us to abandon beef once a week, something the church has failed to do, it might finally prove a Beatle is more popular than Jesus.

But Mairead McGuinness, the meat-eating MEP, would rather McCartney let farmers be. Getting rid of livestock from the planet as a solution to climate change is unrealistic, she said. And what about the leftovers of Sunday's roast? If meat-free Monday is to catch on, McCartney will have to work it out with the agricultural lobby. Farmers hold enormous sway in the EU, and with a